Some Kak´s in Europe have heavily mould, they almost lose all there feathers especially in breeding season. They also seem to mould more often than other bird species. Is this caused by bad selection of birds or is
this normal? I think it's a genetic disorder but I am not sure

I think(?) it was Allen who commented someware on heavy moult...
Thru breeding season we dont realy see any diff in our Kikes
When they go into moult it is often hard to tell other than a few feathers on the bottom of the flight and appearence of new feathers still in the shell.
Unless the observer is familar with Kikes, it would be difficult to even notice they are in moult. Even a very heavy breeding season , the female stays in very good condition.
This is just my gess...I doubt if it is a genetic 'thing' such heavy moult. I would be looking more towards diet, mites, worms to cause such feather loss. I would look more to diet???
I also thought that when birds go into moult , they have finished breeding, and stop laying...this is usually in the late Autumn, or if have been wormed can bring moult on. We wormed in the middle of laying a while back, the last 3 eggs where infertile but didnt cause moult....
I notice from your site that u use supplement foods. We only do this if a bird is sick and needs a boost.
Kikes definately have a very different 'like' to food types to our Kings. Crimsions/ burkes/finches/quail etc.
In another thread I discuss our feed of Fruit, veggies, meat etc. We now add a cap of olive oil , 2 caps of apple cider vinegar, a few drops of Calcium SandoZ syrup to approx 2 kg of chopped mixed veggies. Cutle fish, charcoal are always avalible in the flights.
Once or twice a week I 'raid' the cats biscuits and give a few to the birds as a treat
Our Kikes eat far more veggies/fruit than seed._________________My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'

I have a simliliar problem with heavy moulting partivularly during breeding. Some people around here say that the birds are "ready to breed when they look scruffy due to moulting." I believe it is either diet or heat and perhaps the fact that the female does not bath much while she is incubating eggs.

I had a normal lose 60% of here feathers during her first clutch in June (mid winter) and within a few weeks she was in perfect feather and never lost a feather during her next clutch.

My worst moulters are my two Cinnamons, both male and female looked terrible. I stopped them from breeding for about five months and they are on eggs again, no moulting yet.

The cause of the moulting is really a mystery but I don't think it is normal and will keep experimenting to try and improve the situation.

Has anyone considered that heat with low humidity can be a leading factor for heavy molt during breeding season? Steptoe is from NZ where humidity during summer is never as low as over here and he mentioned that molting there is barely noticeable. If you are breeding the birds outdoors, try out something that I do, that is, create a natural enviroment similar to that of NZ. My property is full of tall shrubs and shade plants as foliage to try to maintain more humidity during hot and dry summer months and to a certain degree, it works. I have observed 2 nestings ,late 2004, and between nestings , plumage recovery was total en females. My males showed little recovery as they continued to feed and care for the young ones but their molting consisted mainly en loosing some facial feathers. They are fine now after a month of recovery without the siblings.

I think the weather block is set default to Auckland airport, there u can see its been rather wet lately . (u can change to your own town)
The humidity etc varies over the breeding season...well we don't really have a breeding season, the kikes tend to breed all yr round....
I reckon heavy to very heavy molt is due to diet and maybe environment.
We have yet to have any of our birds, including the Kings and crimson wings, get into the state some others experience or we have seen.
We have been told by other breeders that our birds get fed more variety and more often than they do (fresh veggies 2x a day/fruit 2x every 3 days, meat/ bones 1x every 2 to 3 days)
(See threads on feeding)
This makes for birds going into molt in very high condition...even after the female has hatched 4 or 5 batches on the dot every 7 weeks!!!

Another issue that could have a great bearing is regular checking for worms/bacteria and the hygiene of the flights.
(see thread on hygiene and another on worming and how to check)
We don't believe in worming on a regular basis, thu we do regular checks...and on the rare occasions we have to, we worm for those at are present ONLY ( there are issues of resistance to consider)...worming can be hard on your birds, they loose much of their body reserves, plus if they have worms they may not have many reserves in the 1st place. Worming then often forces the birds into a molt anyway.
Other than a few feathers sparsely scattered in the bottom of the flights, and a few pins showing on the head it would be difficult at times to tell they are molting._________________My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'

Toby has be moulting for ages........it was nothing at the start you couldnt even tell (apart from the odd feather) but all of a sudden BOOM there are feathers everywhere and he looks quite scruffy hes not bald or anything but you can see his grey fluffys ...on a good note his primary flights are coming back and he can fly now so that is happy news ......I was wondering if anyone could tell me how long this "heavy" part will last???Its almost like a dog losing its winter coat....LOL.....he is chewing and eating like a monster is it maybe a breeding thing too???...I know he is healthy and feeding him good his new feathers are blindingly bright and shiny....he seems to be bathing a bit less the last few days aswell

We have been experimenting with our birds for the past 2 years and have made some significant discoveries during that time in regard to feather condition. The tests we conducted were in relation to diet and also the use of a spray on feather conditioner. Breeders of show budgies have been using these sprays for years so we decided to test them out.
We invited 3 breeders to come and view the birds. The pairs on the new diet and spray were placed in aviaries in amongst the remainder of the collection and all 3 breeders correctly pointed them out as being far better in appearance than the remaining birds, So all our birds are now on the same setup. The overall difference is quite noticeable. This is what we did.
1) Remove all but very small portion of sunflower from seed diet. This prevents the birds from becoming overweight due to fat content in seed. Overweight birds tend to have higher blood pressure which in turn affects condition and feathering.
2) Replaced soaked seed with sprouted seed mix. This mix has two types of sunflower in it but as it is sprouted the fat content is greatly reduced.
3) Added vitamin supplement to fresh food every second day. This is in powdered form and sprinkled over the fresh food and the birds consume it without problems.
4) Reduced dry seed mix by half and supplemented with 3 different brands of parrot pellets. These are treated as treats by the birds and wastage is minimal.
5) Birds are sprayed with a feather conditioner every 6 weeks. This spray also kills mites and lice. It is harmless to the birds and can be sprayed onto the bird without the need to catch them up. It is also sprayed inside the nest boxes when they are removed for cleaning.
6) We are also in the process of installing a srinkler system above the aviaries that will be fitted with foggers. These emit a very fine spray similar to that used in market gardens. The birds dont get wet but are cooled by the process of natural evaporation. Very similar to a tropical rainforest climate. This should allow the humidity and temperature to be maintained at a more acceptable level in summer as we will have it controlled via thermostats

I was just going to post here again thanks for the info.....I have limited the intake on sunflower all the time i had him they are now "treats" that he gets in his ball or from our hands....I feed only sprouts i dont give soaked seed....he is coming in good now looks much better than he did a fortnight ago except for his very stumpy tail
he lost his long tail feathers within days of each other......so he looks a bit weird ...this pic is a week old and they are looking much better now the long ones are taking off....I am not concerned as the feathers look great and all over he is fine and great i just thought this was unusual and that you guys might want to know

It is not unusual for Kakariki to wear down or lose their tail feathers. They spend so much time on the wire of their cage or aviary that the feathers simply break and wear down. We have a hen that has broken her tail feathers twice while exploring the nest boxes.
If you want the tail feathers to regrow quickly it is simply a matter of removing the damaged feathers at the base of the feather. This promotes the new feather growth and often the new feathers are much stronger.

Scruffy tail feathers...we have played with and feed treats in 1 flight thru the netting, another flight in the food trays...the flight we feed thru the wire, the birds hang on the wire when ever we appear...it is also apparent the degree of scruffy tail feathers is proportional to the 'friendlyness' of each individual bird.
The flights that are not feed thru the wire only have slight damage.
1 little female is the most friendly, she basically has no tail feathers at all now, the others then range up from her.
Dont feed treats thru the wire, this encorages them to hang off the wire._________________My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'

His tail feathers where awful before they came out.........he is very typical in the way he climbs the roof of his cage esp when he wants out....I also think thecockatiel could have been taking pot shots at him at any opitunity....they dont fight but do grab each ohters tails...we are now just calling him stumpy untill it grows back in...thanks for letting me know its kind of normal

This year i got this male bird (wildcoloured) with a very heavy moult.
The cause i think , he's got not enough vegetables and animal proteins or the balance between his food was wrong .
The guy were i got him from has breeding with rosella's and Cockatiels
with good breeding results.
But the kakariki's
Now after a few weeks he got his feathers back again.
This is the second bird i had with such a heavy moult.
No one of my own birds has it so far and the other bird hasn't got it again.
P.s. they had no myth.
So far my conclusion

This picture is 8 weeks ago, i have buy this bird because the breeder has to sell him.
Pure wildcolourd birds are rare in europe, the most are pied more or less.
To day he has his feathers back but is fluffy, I think in about 4 months he is back again in his new feathers

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